Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (36 page)

To begin with her
supervisor was already angry with him when he came in because of
the excuses he’d used to try and get out of working. She had put
him to work unpacking new stock and hanging it. It was
mind-numbingly boring and he still found the bra straps
bewildering, but after consulting Frankie’s store of information,
he was able to do it fairly well. That was before the store had
opened, however. As soon as it did, a hoard of customers poured in,
all eager to grab whatever they could during the Semi-Annual
Sale.

Kerov watched as the
Earth females pawed through the neat stacks of underthings,
disarranging all his work. Several of them had brought young ones
and they ran through the store, screaming at each other and hiding
under the hanging racks where they pulled garments off the hangers
and trampled them.

He considered
grabbing them by their collars and dragging them out of the
store—no young would be allowed to run wild in such a way on
Tarsia. However, a quick look at Frankie’s mind showed that such an
action would get him “sued” which appeared to be a legal action one
wanted to avoid at all cost. So he contented himself with telling
the females who owned the young ones to control them. None of them
took his advice kindly, however, and he got several angry looks
from the females he talked to.

The chaos increased
and soon he was being pulled this way and that by various
customers. Some asked him to find specific garments he had no
knowledge of while others demanded that he open dressing rooms for
them. Kerov did the best he could, thinking that at least unlocking
the small fitting areas was easy enough…until Frankie’s supervisor
berated him for it.

“
How many are you letting them take in at once?” she demanded,
grabbing him by the elbow as yet another customer pushed past him
to get into the tiny space with an armful of garments.

“
Uh…as many as they wish to try.” Kerov was confused—had he
somehow done something wrong? From the look on the supervisor’s
sharp, shrewish features, apparently he had.

“
What? You
know
you
can’t do that—the whole store will grow legs and walk!”

“
It will?” Kerov looked around—should he take this statement
literally? Would the store actually uproot itself and grow
appendages to walk away on? Surely not.

“
You know it will! Look, you can’t trust the customers not to
take a five finger discount if you don’t watch them,” Frankie’s
supervisor lectured. “No more than five pieces at a time. And be
sure they’re
not
trying on
the panties—only the bras. And watch out for old man Jenkins—you
know what he likes to do! He’s supposed to be banned from the store
but if we don’t watch it, he’ll sneak in. I don’t need to deal with
that today.”

Kerov had no idea
who old man Jenkins was but he found out later. As he was rushing
to open a fitting room for a woman who had only five garments to
try, he heard her scream.

“
Oh my God—what is he
doing
in there?”

Kerov ran back to
the fitting room and saw the customer making a face of disgust and
disbelief. Looking into the room, he saw an older Earth male
sitting on the tiny wooden bench in the corner. He had his trousers
around his ankles and a pair of silky red panties wrapped around
his engorged member. He was masturbating furiously and several
stained and crumpled piles of other silky undergarments proved that
he had been at it for some time.

“
Ugh!” the customer looked at Kerov. “This is awful! You need
to call security.

“
Security be damned,” Kerov growled. Leaning into the tiny
room, he had yanked the Earth male up by his collar and dragged him
out into the main area of the store.

“
Hey now, hey now,” the male protested, shuffling because his
trousers were still around his ankles. “No need to get rough,
pretty lady. I was just havin’ a little fun.”

“
Pleasuring yourself in a public area and using undergarments
that do not belong to you to do so, is a punishable offense,” Kerov
informed him. He was certain this was true as Frankie’s store of
information informed him as much. “I would be within my rights to
take you straight to the authorities.”

Just then Frankie’s
supervisor came rushing up.

“
What are you doing?” she screeched. “What the
Hell
do you think you’re
doing?”

At first Kerov
thought she was screeching at the Earth male but it turned out she
was angry with Kerov again.

“
You can’t go dragging him out into the middle of the store
with his wang hanging out!” she exclaimed, waving her arms. “Take
him to the back and I’ll call security. But first make him pull up
his pants—we’re going to get sued for indecent exposure. There are
kids in here for God’s sake!”

Kerov had done as
she said but the day had only gotten worse after that. He had been
yelled at again when one of the customers with young ones
complained that he had insulted her by asking her to control her
child. Apparently Earth people didn’t like advice on how to rear
their young.

Later in the day the
crowds finally started tapering off. Kerov had hoped to go at some
point but Frankie’s supervisor forced him to stay and help
straighten up the store which was “completely trashed” as another
hapless salesperson put it.

Kerov worked
diligently. He disliked cleaning up the mess left after the sale
but it was better than dealing with customers in his opinion. He
had just begun to think that the worst was over when an older Earth
female with gray hair came in with her mate.

“
Frankie!” she exclaimed, dragging her mate over and giving
Kerov a big hug.

“
Um, hello there…Mrs. Hofstadter,” Kerov said, grateful that
he was able to find the name in Frankie’s mind. “And how are you
today?”

“
Oh, Leonard and I are fine, aren’t we Lenny?” Mrs. Hofstadter
nudged her mate with one sharp elbow.

“
Yes, Myra,” he grunted unenthusiastically.

“
We just heard you were having a big sale and we wanted to come
stock up on some
sexy things.”
Mrs. Hofstadter giggled girlishly. “You know—for our
BDSM
playtime?”

“
No, I do not know,” Kerov said, without thinking. He probably
should have consulted Frankie’s mind to see what the letters stood
for but he was busy straightening a pile of tangled bras and he
didn’t want to expend the effort.

“
You know—bondage and domination and all that! You know…” Mrs.
Hofstadter’s voice dropped a note as though she was telling a
naughty secret. “The other day Leonard had me tied to the bed and
he was rubbing that cinnamon scented lotion onto my goody
basket—you know, the kind that heats up?”

“
Uh…” Caught completely off guard, Kerov stopped straightening
the undergarments and looked at her. Was this female telling him
about her private sexual practices? And if so, why?
“Your…
goody
basket?”
he asked
before he thought.

“
You know—my lady bits.” Mrs. Hofstadter nodded pointedly down
at her crotch. “Anyway, he had just put the nipple clamps on me
so…”

Kerov listened in
disbelief as the Earth female continued to talk, giving intimate
details of all the strange sexual practices she and her mate
indulged in. Why was she telling him all this? And what could he do
to make her stop?

Nothing, apparently.
Mrs. Hofstadter followed him around the store and even walked with
him out to the employee parking where he had left Frankie’s small
vehicle when he was finally allowed to leave.

By
that time Kerov was thoroughly tired of hearing about the strange
ways the inhabitants of Earth “sexed each other up” as Mrs.
Hofstadter put it. He did wonder, though, if Frankie indulged in
such practices. She
had
told him
that her society was more permissive in such matters. Certainly
nothing Mrs. Hofstadter described would be allowed on Tarsia but
maybe everyone here on Earth was slightly perverted due to their
looser standards?

He made a mental
note to ask Frankie the next time they intersected—which he
fervently hoped was soon. He’d wanted to go straight to her
domicile and go to sleep—he was certainly tired enough to do so.
Unfortunately, shortly after he arrived there, Lacy had as well,
reminding him that he had to attend Frankie’s family gathering. As
there didn’t seem to be any way to get out of it, now he was on the
way there, trying to make what Frankie’s mind told him was “small
talk” with her best friend.

“
Could have been better, huh?” Lacy asked sympathetically,
pulling him out of his dark thoughts. “One of those days,
right?”

“
A
day straight from the lowest level of the Seven Hells,” Kerov
growled.

“
Huh?” Lacy gave him a strange look. “The
what
did you say now?”

“
Nothing.” Kerov looked out the window, wishing he was back in
his own body. He was thoroughly tired of being stuck here on this
strange planet pretending to be someone he was not. “Nothing—I said
nothing.”

“
Well, forget about that—how was your date with Professor
Sexy?” Lacy inquired.

Kerov tried to
suppress a sigh.

“
It did not…go as expected,” he said at last.

“
What?” Lacy gave him a startled look. “But I thought he was
going to be the one—the guy you finally slept with to break your
no-nookie streak after finally getting away from
Carlos?”

“
I
did
not
have relations with him,”
Kerov snapped. “He only wanted…” He consulted Frankie’s store of
information, trying to think how to phrase his words. “He only
wanted to get under my pants.”

“
Under
your
pants? What?”

“
Into—I mean
into,”
Kerov
hastily corrected. “He only wanted to get
into
my pants. Which I did
not
allow.” Just remembering the encounter pissed him off even
more and he scowled.

“
Oh, hon—I’m so sorry.” Lacy put a hand on his arm and
squeezed consolingly. “That sucks. I know you really liked
him.”

“
He was the son of an asshole,” Kerov said, hastily grabbing
from Frankie’s store of curse words.

“
A
what
now? You mean a son of a
bitch?” Lacy asked.

“
Exactly. The son of a female dog.” Kerov nodded, confident he
had it right that time. “And a real brotherfucker.”

Lacy was looking at
him strangely.

“
Um, Frankie, don’t take this the wrong way but you’ve been
acting kind of weird lately. I’m sorry that your date didn’t work
out. And I guess you’re still kind of upset over the yoga thing
too, huh?”

“
Yes.” Kerov nodded decisively, glad that she’d given him an
excuse for his mood.

“
Or is it Carlos? Has he been bothering you again? I know he’s
going to be at this family thing tonight.”

“
He is?” Kerov felt a growl building in his throat as he
remembered the drunken phone call that had awakened him at such a
critical juncture. He also didn’t like the fact that this Carlos
seemed to feel he had a claim on Frankie—and that her family seemed
to agree.

“
Hey—are you
growling
over
there?” Lacy shot him a sidelong glance filled with uncertainty. “I
mean, I know he pisses you off but—”

“
I
am not growling,” Kerov lied. “I just…I was clearing my
throat.”

“
Okay, well, if he gives you trouble tonight, remember that we
don’t have to stay. I know it’s
your
family and you don’t want to let him run you off but a girl
can only take so much, you know? So if you need to leave, just let
me know.”

“
Duly noted,” Kerov said shortly. “Thank you.”

“
You’re welcome.” Lacy shot him another confused look. “I just
hope you get back to feeling like yourself again soon. I miss the
old Frankie.”

Kerov shot her a glance. He
had
to do a better job pretending to be Frankie! He was ruining
her life and now her best friend suspected his
duplicity.

I
must do a better job of impersonating her—especially when I meet
her family,
he
told himself.
None
of them must suspect that anything is wrong.

Chapter Sixteen

“
All right—you’re all cleaned up and decent. Now tell me.”
Jorn looked at Frankie intently and she could tell he wouldn’t be
put off anymore. She’d already stalled as much as she could. She’d
started by saying she couldn’t possibly talk when she was covered
in green slime and vomit. Not to be put off, Jorn had taken her to
his home and let her use the bathroom to clean up.

Frankie had tried to
think of a way around it but there was no choice—even after
swearing she would never do it again, she was forced to undergo
another one of the horrible Tarsian showers. This time at least she
knew what to expect, so it wasn’t quite as bad—but she still had to
nerve herself up for it and she was relieved when it was over. Then
Jorn loaned her the Tarsian version of a tooth brush—a
semi-circular device with bristles sticking out all over that
brushed every tooth in her mouth at once—and she finally got the
awful tastes of the banquet out of her mouth.